I completed my Public Leadership Scholars practicum by taking the class ENES210. ENES210 is known as Entrepreneurial Opportunity Analysis and Decision-Making in Technology Ventures. In this class I learned about the principles of entrepreneurial opportunity analysis through a semester-long project of building my own startup. Every week, I developed my hypothetical startup further by completing assignments and tackling important aspects of the process. A few things I did were create a value proposition, select advisers and partners, and devise a financial strategy. My startup was centered around an AI-based mental health and wellness app which is geared to improve the user's mental well-being through functions like personalized goal setting, meditation, and a social feature to connect with other users. Mental health is something I am passionate about and I want to potentially make this idea into a real venture in the future.
What did you learn from your practicum?
From completing my practicum class, I learned the importance of strategic planning and looking at all aspects of the startup you are trying to create. I learned vital aspects of beginning a startup such as understanding how to create value, assessing competitors in the market, and selecting a target market. As a business student, I was able to combine my knowledge of marketing with the process of developing a tech-based startup. Overall, my practicum was a very insightful experience, as it gave me the hands-on training that I need to help me develop my own startup in the future.
How have you grown as a leader, student, and professional? Upload at least 1 artifact as evidence of your growth and discuss WHY you chose it. Describing WHY you uploaded something is more important than the item itself.
Here I have attached a short blurb that I wrote for my fraternity as the philanthropy chair. It is short in length, but I believe it serves as a great example of how I have grown as a professional and leader in my community. So far, we have raised over $15,000 for suicide prevention, leading all Maryland schools and placing third in the country. As I have said, I am very passionate about mental health and this philanthropy mission. My contributions show how I have impacted the world around me as a UMD student. I believe this is a great start to developing my leadership capabilities and an excellent way to show employers how I have experience organizing a successful fundraiser.
How can you apply your practicum experience to your life/career moving forward?
My practicum experience will be valuable to my career, as it taught me important skills about building a startup from scratch. Learning about team strategy, market strategy, and financial strategy from a tech standpoint expanded my knowledge of these aspects for the business world I will be entering. Tech and business are tied very closely in entrepreneurship, so learning how they interact was very helpful. Now I am more knowledgeable about things I want to associate my career with, like tech, startups, and finance. This knowledge will certainly be applied in my career moving forward.
What are your plans for:
The rest of your time at UMD?
For the rest of my time at UMD, I am going to pursue a degree in Finance in the Smith school and possibly double major in Operations Management and Business Analytics. I will continue to be actively involved and hold positions in the organizations I am involved in. This summer, I will be doing a finance internship.
Post-graduation and your prospective career/field of interest?
After graduation, I will be looking for a job related to my major(s) most likely in the greater D.C. area. I am particularly interested in wealth management and financial advising. I am also passionate about my startup idea so I could transform that into my own business in the future.
How will you incorporate what you learned in PL (this could include your practicum) into your job search? Upload:
PL helped me drastically improve my public speaking and teamwork skills. Therefore, I feel more comfortable talking about myself to employers and working in team environments whenever needed. Thanks to PL, I also know a lot more about my tendencies and how I work most effectively. I can use this knowledge to find positions that are best suited to my interests and capabilities. My practicum course taught me a lot about startups and the process of creating one. Hence, I am now more suited to work in startup jobs and even help in founding one myself.